Thursday, December 3, 2015

Bring back Old Sparky

Opponents of the death penalty don’t get far in state
legislatures, so they have resorted to being pests.

Every state that permits executions has a different
protocol, and every part of the process is under attack, leading one legal
scholar to label the situation “problematic and chaotic.” Virginia skirted a
challenge by buying a lethal drug from Texas, where secrecy laws are stronger.

There
is an easier answer: Bring back Old Sparky!

That
was the nickname for the electric chairs of many states, notably Florida. In a
handful of other states, it was Old Smokey. Louisiana had its Gruesome Gertie,
Alabama its Yellow Mama.

Some
states maintain functioning electric chairs, but Florida was forced to retire
its Old Sparky in 2000 after botched executions. In one, flames a foot high
shot out of a convicted murderer’s head, leading to cries of “cruel and unusual
punishment.” To which the state AG, Bob Butterworth, classically replied:
“People who wish to commit murder, they’d better not do it in the state of
Florida because we may have a problem with the electric chair.”

The
electric chair was first used in New York on an ax murderer in 1890. The latest
use was in 2013 in Virginia, where a convicted murderer started killing fellow
inmates and promised to continue. He picked the chair over lethal injection.

Now
I’ll backtrack and point out a sobering fact: Mistakes are made in the legal
system. About 150 people have been saved off death row. Juries have convicted
relying on shaky eyewitness testimony, sometimes coerced. Prosecutors have
overreached.

So
I advance the modest proposal to fire prosecutors who wrongfully send a
defendant to death row. Disbar those who conceal exculpatory evidence. Many
cases are no-brainers; sometimes much thought is called for.